ARM Announces Availability of Physical IP Libraries for MCU Devices

ARM, the company behind many of today's smartphones and other digital products, has announced today the availability of ultra low-power Physical IP libraries put together to drive the development of the next generation of energy-efficient MCU devices. SoC designers are now provided with the ARM 0.18µm ultra low power libraries (µLL), the power management advantages of the ARM Cortex processor family and the TSMC 0.18µm embedded flash µLL/HDR “high data retention” process. These solutions are meant to deliver an additional reduction in power leakage of up to 10x compared to 0.18µm G implementations, the Cambridge, United Kingdom-based company announced.

“Consumer demand for mobile and embedded devices offering higher performance, enriched user experience and extended battery life continues to increase,” said Tom Lantzsch, vice president, physical IP division at ARM. “By utilizing our 0.18µm uLL libraries and Cortex family of processors, companies can now maximize their design and energy efficiencies through a single 32-bit MCU, fully tuned with foundry-specific libraries. This powerful combination of IP accelerates the development of next generation energy-efficient embedded devices.”

According to ARM, using the Cortex-M and Cortex-R profile processors, in addition to the ARM libraries and TSMC's 0.18µm uLL Embedded Flash/HDR process, designers can develop more efficient designs and lower the overall system cost. The combined solution of the aforementioned tools will enable the development of enhanced 32-bit MCUs for a series of devices, including automotive, consumer appliance, sensor, lighting, e-metering, smart control and gaming devices.

“TSMC and ARM share a mutual commitment to provide a fully optimized design and manufacturing solution for ultra low power, energy-efficient SoCs,” said George Liu, director, Mainstream Technology Business at TSMC. “ARM’s unique ability to integrate leading-edge processor architecture and optimized physical IP for our 0.18µm uLL process provides a feature-rich solution for the power-sensitive portable device and automotive markets. This combination forms a compelling value statement for our mutual customers.”